A lot of configuration in FreeBSD is done by editing text files. Because of this, it
would be a good idea to become familiar with a text editor. FreeBSD comes with a few as
part of the base system, and many more are available in the Ports Collection.
The easiest and simplest editor to learn is an editor called ee, which stands for easy editor. To start ee, one would type at the command line ee filename where filename is the name of the file to be edited. For
example, to edit /etc/rc.conf, type in ee
/etc/rc.conf. Once inside of ee, all of the commands for
manipulating the editor's functions are listed at the top of the display. The caret ^ character represents the Ctrl key on the
keyboard, so ^e expands to the key combination Ctrl+e. To leave ee,
hit the Esc key, then choose leave editor. The editor will prompt
you to save any changes if the file has been modified.
FreeBSD also comes with more powerful text editors such as vi as part of the base system, while other editors, like Emacs and vim, are part of the FreeBSD
Ports Collection (editors/emacs and editors/vim). These editors offer much more functionality and
power at the expense of being a little more complicated to learn. However if you plan on
doing a lot of text editing, learning a more powerful editor such as vim or Emacs will save you much more
time in the long run.
